


Black Pearl

by bbytaebin



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo's relationship is sorta background, Child Abuse, Luhan is a terrorist, M/M, Minseok is a future king, Past Child Abuse, Slight Baekhyun/Chanyeol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-28
Updated: 2016-05-28
Packaged: 2018-06-10 08:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6948463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bbytaebin/pseuds/bbytaebin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Minseok had seen the way people look at him differently after a beating, and the looks of disbelief, like they couldn't believe that their queen would ever lay her hand in a negative way onto her own son.<br/>Minseok almost couldn't believe it either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Black Pearl

**Author's Note:**

> By the way, Minseok is seventeen inn this, but would be turning eighteen soon. Everyone in EXO (including Yifan and tao) is older than him except for Jongin and Yixing.  
> Luhan is older than Minseok by a year, making him eighteen, turning nineteen.  
> If you see the name Sehun instead of Minseok, that is my fault. Other than when Minseok is using that name for the name of the prince, it should not be there. Originally I had used Sehuns name and had the fic based around him, but I changed it to Minseok.

His eyes wandered over the expanse of dark blue water, waves rippling in motions that made Minseok's breath calm, and his eyes roamed farther out than his mother usually let him, but she wasn't here to tell him things outside are dangerous.  
He knows what she means, the vast expanse of land he saw before it turned into the ocean was covered with things Minseok couldn't even image touching, much less feeling. He could imagine running his hands along the pale yellow stuff his mother often referred to as "sand", but he was sure his mother wouldn't ever let him out to do so as long as she lived.  
He always has had a fascination with the water his mother taught him was called the Sea. She told him there were too many kinds of fish to count, all of them different colours. He couldn't even pretend he hadn't thought about sneaking out to feel the water, swim in it. He could pretend he wasn't interested, didn't think of bribing the guards and slipping out, past his mother and all her rules and all her controlling ideas.  
When he was called out for lunch, his eyes didn't meet his mother's right away, and that's when he knew he gave it away. His eyes were kept on his food, a serving of salmons and some steamed vegetables his mother said were imported, though his mother told him a lot of things he suspected, even with his limited and controlled knowledge, were untrue. He never said anything to stop her though, since she probably had good reasons for it. Well, that and the fact that whenever somebody stood up to her, she had them publicly beheaded, and as much as he thought she loved him, she'd more than once threatened this.  
She coughed halfway through the meal, and Minseok had memorized this action. Something had to be talked about seriously, and he was to be the one to shoo the wait staff away, rude enough that it wouldn't anger his mother, but also kindly enough that the staff wouldn't be offended.  
"Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, you're dismissed." Minseok managed to stop his voice from cracking this time, but last time he wasn't so fortunate.  
He remembers the way his mother scolded and punished him, especially since a member of the legislature from a neighbouring kingdom was visiting on foreign affairs. He remembers the strikes against his back, and the harsh words she spit towards him, venom laced between sentences filled with beratement and things she definitely couldn't say around the slaves—though his mother preferred to call them "appointed property persons"—she had ordered to whip her sorry excuse of a child.  
Minseok knows she was disappointed in the fact she bore a boy, she couldn't even marry him off to a neighbouring kingdom, all their rulers also bearing male children, though he was surprised she wasn't desperate enough to rid of him even to a male suitor forcefully. He knew she didn't like the fact Minseok was so quiet, always thanking the staff, refusing to punish them. He wonders if she would be desperate enough to seek women "befitting of his social stature" in the local public, but by the way she talked, he was sure she wasn't far off.  
"Minseok, dearest," Minseok absolutely hated that pet name, something she used bitterly, as if having to use a tone of endearment towards her own child pained her, "we must talk about your coronation!" She immediately brightened up, almost like the fact she would have to give up her control hadn't even been a thought in her mind.  
Minseok repressed a groan with a smile he was sure anyone could tell was fake, but his mother just kept continuing on with her ranting about things Minseok's already heard eighteen times in the past twelve days.  
And that wasn't even counting the times she talked about it in her sleep.  
And whenever she decided she'd be kind enough to let him retire to his room, but not too early that he could busy himself with something restricted—like the board games he had received from Jongin, who was a kid way younger than him, and when his mother found out earned a beating and a month of residing Minseok to feeling extremely guilty—or dangerous.  
Maybe she had to worry about the dangerous part, since Baekhyun started talking to him during his rounds after his mother retired about the outside, and it only made Minseok want to escape to that body of water even more.  
"Minseok! Are you even listening?!" His mother snapped, her out-of-character octave scaring him even more than the threat he knew was hidden behind the words, since despite the fact nobody was here, she still had herself under the spell that she was a perfect mother, and everyone else believed it too.  
Minseok had seen the way people look at him differently after a beating, and the looks of disbelief, like they couldn't believe that their queen would ever lay her hand in a negative way onto her own son.  
Minseok almost couldn't believe it either.  
But then again, he hadn't grown up with that woman and her husband. The king was the nicest person people said they'd ever met, with a smile to kill. They said that he looked so much like his father, but if he looked anything like the portraits that Baekhyun had, again illegally, shown them to Minseok from where his mother ordered them be stored after his death, he didn't think so. His father had kind eyes, and he looked like one of those people women fawned for, and he heard some maids lusted after him, despite his marriage with Minseok's mother.  
Minseok's father had died a year before he was born, not knowing as he threw himself into battle his wife would soon find out she was pregnant, but Minseok can't say he hasn't thought about his mother being unfaithful while his father was away.  
"No mother, my mind was drifting, forgive me."  
His mother scoffed at his excuse. But he did notice her eyes dim after.  
"What has you so distracted, son?" Her lips curled into a sneer after the word 'son', like she'd still yet to accept Minseok is who he is, seventeen years after his birth.  
"Ju-" She didn't even let him start the sentence before she cut in, silencing him with a huff.  
"Is it a girl?" Minseok held back a laugh by biting his tongue, she should know better.  
"No, mother, I'm just tired, all this coronation planning is wearing me down."  
His mother let out a laugh, a smile gracing her features. Baekhyun told him his mother used to be very beautiful, before now. He tries to imagine her without all the stress wrinkles and the ever-present sneer and quiet judgement, but she never gives him enough time, before she's coming to ask him something or yell at him or just distract him from thinking, as if she thinks he's planning to overthrow her or something equally ridiculous.  
"Wait until you are actually King, then things will be even worse!" She lets out a small snort of laughter, and Minseok smiles too.  
The moment is short lived when Kyungsoo comes in, and she immediately recovers, sitting straighter and pulling that same frown he's so used to on her face.  
"My lady, there has been a breach of resistance in the west, again." He knows Kyungsoo adds the last part because he's fed up with Minseok's mother only caring about the north, near the castle, and Kyungsoo's family is from the west, sold to his mother after Minseok's birth, when Kyungsoo was a little boy.  
He remembers his mother talking to him about rebels that hated the crown, and liked to attack the castle frequently. The last attack he remembers was when he was six and he was shoved into a boarded up room before he could see anything. He remembers having nightmares and basically forcing Kyungsoo and Baekhyun into his room, and Baekhyun promised he'd scare the intruders away every time, and Minseok believes him.  
"I'll be there in a moment, notify the advisers and have them meet me in the military room," she looks over to Minseok, frowning directly at him, "and you, finish eating and then go straight to your room, if you need someone, take Zitao with you."  
That makes sense. She's convinced Zitao can take care of him, even though when challenged Zitao will do anything under the crown, he's really a puppy when it comes to anything outside of his immediate skills; eating and fighting.  
Nevertheless, for his safety and Zitao's he invites Zitao up to his room, just to talk. They talk about all sorts of things, animals Zitao has seen, foods Minseok has eaten, just things the other wants to know.  
They talk for hours, topics that matter and that don't cross the conversational orbit, and Minseok can't remember feeling so comfortable with someone in a long time, since it's been awhile since he's talked one-on-one with Zitao, since mostly their interactions include awkward eye contact that made Minseok accidentally choke on his dinner once at the table, which scared his mother enough to make her choke too and it was a nightmare for Zitao.  
Minseok is cut off from his thoughts again by his mother. Zitao stands at attention, but he's quickly waved off, and Zitao takes that as his cue to leave, not bothering to bid Minseok goodbye in his mother's presence.  
His mother sighs, sitting in the chair Zitao had previously been forced from, running her fingers through her hair, and he noticed she wasn't wearing the crown that sat almost obnoxiously on her head, as if there to remind everyone she was still in charge.  
She says nothing, but comes up and pats Minseok on the head, and he's confused, but she's usually this cryptic and distant when she's not screaming at him he can't find it in himself to be surprised.

 

And a couple days later, Minseok isn't surprised when she calls him to her personal room just to scream at him. But she knows that doesn't work, it won't bother him like his existence bothers her. So she takes it up a notch, and orders him to find Zitao and bring him here. He considers telling Zitao to hide, but he knows that this will not stop her, and it'll only make things worse for him.  
So he seeks Zitao out, grimacing the whole time, and he wills himself not to cry for his friend, because that would make Zitao cry also and he doesn't want his mother to feel the satisfaction he knows the waterworks will give her. So, he warns Zitao, and the terrified look on his face is mirrored when his suspicions of torture were not confirmed. No, they weren't even close.  
Sitting next to his mother, was Zitao's father.  
Zitao hadn't told Minseok much about his father, only very few tales could make it out of his mouth before Zitao was sobbing and Minseok was trying not to cry also and they both would end up crying messes anyways. They were always stories of abuse and torture, crying and maniacal laughter, and he wishes he could tell Zitao he knew how it felt.  
But he didn't say anything, for he knew his voice would crack and he would stutter and this would be the one thing he wouldn't back down on. This would be the thing that he wouldn't let him mother silence him on. But that act of rebellion was short-lived when a shot fired and hit the window shattering it.  
Minseok didn't know much about the resistance, but he knew they were here. They weren't going to leave either, from what he heard from Baekhyun who had overheard his mother and Kyungsoo talking.  
"How did they get in?! Who opened the gates?!" Ah yes, the gates.  
Minseok forgot about those damned things, that made him scared as a child to go out into the yard, and he swears his mother put them there with the soul purpose to scare him. It worked, he would give her that. His mother screamed and hid under the bed, and Zitao's father fled the room he could hear his footsteps thundering down the stairs and the hall door open. Shots fired, and a thud. Minseok was partly glad he ran himself into death, because he sure as hell wasn't helping that demon up.  
He pulled Zitao up from where he had sunk to the ground in shock, leaving his mother. Despite how she acted and looked, she could fend for herself pretty decently. Well, Zitao could too, but Minseok wasn't taking his chances with him in this state. Sure, he felt bad for leaving his mother, but she had to learn there were consequences for her actions.  
If anybody should die today, it should be her.  
Shots fired, and Zitao huddled in the corner of the room, scared to death. Minseok felt bad, but he was confused as to why he wasn't also in a corner huddled and crying. Maybe he wasn't scared. No, he was definitely scared, but he couldn't bring himself to fall down in front of Zitao, even if it meant lying to him and say it would be okay, when Minseok knew by the shots and screams ringing out downstairs, that Zitao apparently couldn't hear, it wasn't.  
The door opened, and Minseok looked up to see a boy, with golden hair and a bandana covering the lower half of his face, a knife in hand, looking straight at them. The boy closed the door, walking in and sitting himself down in a chair, still looking straight at them, though acting as if he couldn't see them, and he wasn't a terrorist just waltzing in here with a knife and bandana and arms in a tank top that made Minseok uncomfortable just looking at them.  
"U-Uh," Zitao stuttered from the corner, "are you going to kill us?"  
The boy laughed.  
"Unless you of royal blood, you ain't nothing to us, boy." He said it as if the part of his face Minseok could see wasn't the most feminine face on a male Minseok's ever seen. And the sad part was, Zitao actually looked intimidated.  
Minseok considered telling him he was in fact, of royal descent, or blood, but he didn't. He couldn't afford to be taken away from Zitao right now.  
"I'm Minseok, what is your name?" He tries to use combinations of words to help him sound like Zitao, but it doesn't help him that his friend is currently dead to the world over in the corner of the room.  
"The name's Lu Han, but call me Luhan." Luhan's eyes shine, the colour vaguely familiar.  
Zitao chooses this moment to come back to reality.  
"I-I'm Huang Zitao." His voice is small, meek compared to his usual tone, but he's up and talking, so Minseok is relieved.  
Luhan smiles at Zitao, pulling down the bandana from his mouth, and his lips are pink and soft-looking and Minseok was correct in thinking he's the most feminine male terrorist he's ever seen. But, that's not saying a lot since he's never actually seen one up this close and personal before.  
"Someone said there's a son, do you know who?" Minseok hopes Luhan can't hear Zitao's whimper at the sentence.  
"No, someone took him off, I think his name was Sehun." Minseok acts like he's trying to think, but he knows he can't look very convincing.  
"Well, you wanna come with us? Your buddies are all downstairs, they've agreed." Minseok hopes this isn't an attempt to woo him down to shoot him, but if it is, at least the guy leading him is attractive.  
The people downstairs all raise their guns at first sight, before Luhan gives stern eyes and they all lower them reluctantly.  
Minseok isn't paying attention, but he vaguely hears words like "new recruits" and "Queen is dead", and as sad as it is, he can't find it in himself to cry, to feel guilty. He just walks with Luhan, staying as close as they can until he finds Kyungsoo or Baekhyun or Chanyeol.  
His wish is granted when he hears a "Minseokkie!" which lets him know Baekhyun has found him.  
'Minseokkie' was something Baekhyun used to call him when Minseok was little, something he always got beaten for by Minseok's mother, and every time Minseok would ask if he was okay it was always "I'm fine, Minseokkie" or "Yeah, Seok, I'm fine!" with a bright smile on his face. And every time he saw it, Minseok smiled too.  
Baekhyun embraced him for the first time, and they had to step over bodies of guards on the way out. This new foreign feeling of warmth, was new.  
Luhan seemed to notice from where he was watching, and spoke up with a giggle that went straight to Minseok's cheeks.  
"You look like you've never been hugged!" After a few moments of silence and silent curse words he'd heard Baekhyun say, Luhan gasped.  
Before Minseok could inquire as to why he was gasping, Luhan's arms were around his waist, caging him.  
Minseok's cheeks heated up, and from behind Luhan, Baekhyun, Kyungsoo and Zitao were giving him thumbs up, something Zitao had told him meant praise.  
This made him start to sputter, which made Luhan laugh again. 

When they walked out of the doors, there was smoke and fire and gunshot holes everywhere, and despite the fact he viewed this place as a prison his mother set up to keep him away from the world, he had to look away. Luhan noticed, and rubbed his back soothingly. He remembers this is something Chanyeol used to do when they were both younger.  
Speaking of, where was Chanyeol?  
He looked towards Baekhyun, whose radiant smile was replaced with a straight face, and he was biting his lip so hard Minseok thought it was going to draw blood.  
He looked behind him, and Chanyeol was back in the group, practically hanging off someone Minseok vaguely recognizes from a photo Chanyeol had of his friends back in his hometown before he was sold to Minseok's father before even Chanyeol was born himself. Minseok felt bad for Baekhyun, but was relieved to see all the staff, no, all his friends were safe.  
He looked at the ocean as they walked by it, to where vans and cars of ammunition were, and Minseok could smell the salt, and feel the sand under his shoes. He could feel the wind like he hadn't ever.  
He started walking towards the ocean by accident, but it wasn't an accident when Luhan pushed him into the waves, making Minseok gurgle with his screams in the water and Luhan laugh. Minseok splashed him back playfully and even though he didn't know what was happening, it felt so natural and so right. Why did Luhan just attempt to assassinate him? By the gurgles of laughs around him, he doubts there was malicious intent.  
And he pulled Luhan down into the waves too, and Luhan called people over and apparently running from living guards turned into Luhan, his friends Yixing and Yifan, and everyone else splashing in waves and things were suddenly cut off by sirens and Luhan was pulling people in vans and driving away as fast as they could and Minseok could tell they didn't know where they were going.  
But with his head in Luhan's lap, sprawled across a row in a van, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo in the row behind and Yixing and Yifan in the front and passenger seat, Minseok had a feeling he wouldn't need Baekhyun to chase away the bad guys.

EXTRA;  
"I'm going to be honest, I'm the prince, Kim Minseok." Minseok cringed when the truth came flying out of his mouth.  
He didn't know what to expect, but the entire car to burst into laughter was definitely not it.  
"We know." Luhan managed to get out between loud laughter.  
"Your clothes kind of gave it away immediately." Yixing squeaked out between huffs of laughter. "O-Oh"  
Luhan leaned down, wiggling his fingers by Minseok's collarbone, in a way that made him comfortably uncomfortable, making him squirm.  
"Don't be embarrassed, Seok."  
Minseok didn't hear Baekhyun's whine of "Hey only I can call him that!" From where Baekhyun was situated on Kyungsoo's lap, face buried in Kyungsoo's neck, despite having the whole row themselves.


End file.
